American Le Mans Series

Flying Lizard Detroit preview

© American Le Mans Series

The Flying Lizard squad is back in the U.S. this week for the ninth round of the American Le Mans Series season, the Detroit Sports Car Challenge, to be held August 30 in a joint race weekend with IndyCar. The 2.096-mile, 14-turn temporary street course is located on Belle Isle, a beautiful 982-acre island in the Detroit River. 2008 is the second consecutive year that the American Le Mans Series has competed in Detroit.

Heading into the race, Flying Lizard drivers Joerg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler lead in the ALMS GT2 drivers’ championship, ten points ahead of Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Mueller of the No. 71 Tafel Racing Ferrari, and forty points ahead of teammates Johannes van Overbeek and Patrick Pilet of the No. 46 Porsche, who are in third. There are a total of 75 additional points possible in the three upcoming races: a first place finish is worth 20 points at Detroit, 30 at Petit Le Mans, and 25 at Laguna Seca. The Flying Lizard team is also leading in the ALMS GT2 team championships, twenty-one points ahead of Tafel Racing in second.

The driver lineup for Detroit will be Bergmeister and Henzler in the No. 45 and van Overbeek and Pilet in the No. 46. In the Flying Lizard No. 44 Porsche, Lonnie Pechnik will be joined for Detroit by Martin Ragginger, a 20-year old Porsche Junior Factory Driver. From Austria, Ragginger has driven since 2007 with the UPS Porsche Junior team in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany and Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup series.

Follow the Race
The 2-hour and 45-minute Detroit Sports Car Challenge starts at 2:35 pm EDT on Saturday, August 30. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED. XM Satellite Radio will air the race live on XM Channel 166. Live radio coverage also will be available from American Le Mans Radio at www.americanlemans.com. SPEEDtv.com will broadcast qualifying live online starting at 4:35 p.m. ET on Friday, August 29.

Flying Lizard will broadcast their team radio live on raceday and provide live pit notes from the race in the team blog. See www.lizardms.com for more information.